In the United States alone, over twenty-five billion transactions are performed each year using financial transaction cards. Performing a transaction using a financial transaction card can be accomplished in a variety of ways, such as by using an electronic card reader and by entering account data imprinted or written on a financial transaction card.
There are multiple interfaces that can be employed to enter data that has been imprinted or written on the financial transaction card. These interfaces include push-button or virtual keyboards or other text entry devices, microphones or other sound detection devices, cameras or other light detection devices, imprint readers or other contour detection devices, etc.
In some cases, such interfaces can be part of, or attached to, mobile computing devices. Data from these interfaces can be processed locally and can be sent to other computing devices such as servers for further processing.